Back in the BKK

We woke up at 3:30am this morning, got ready, and took a taxi to the bus station. We arrived at the station at 4:45 and the bus showed up as we were arriving. This was to be an indicator of our entire trip.

The bus ride to the Cambodian border was actually pretty nice. I don't know what most people complain about, and it's only four hours each way. We scored an air conditioned bus for 200 baht round trip. Apparently many Thais make this trip to gamble in the border city of Poi Pet. So this bus route is pretty well known.

Our guide, Instructor Boyd, may or may not have talked his way into getting us some perks, but he did hook us up with a Thai buisness woman who was transferring some goods from Bangkok to the Thai side of the border. We were offered free meal tickets to a casino in Cambodian territory which we took full advantage of later on.

Upon arriving I noticed that this city was pretty run down. We took a side trip before crossing the border to the many side stalls that were jam packed with all kinds of clothing. A lot of this was being transported on rickshaws that were overloaded and looked like some demented animal. I'm used to people staring at me in Bangkok, and I don't even notice it anymore. However, here they STARE at foreigners, I even heard "AYE FALAHNG!" shouted in surprise as I walked by one stall. I guess we aren't that common in those areas, most foreigners I saw here were staying near the border entry and then high-tailing it to their next destination.

The stalls were the usual depot of stolen goods, knock offs, or sweat shop defects. I find these knock offs to be quite entertaining. Especially when you run into names like adadas, adides, pama, pema, and so on. I almost bought a pair of "Adides" sandals that had the Puma logo on the sole of the shoe, just for the irony.

Hanging out by these shops was actually getting annoying, so we crossed the border. We had to pay a small fine for one days worth of overstaying our visa. The person doing all of our paperwork seemed to be getting a little sideline advice from our instructor but I have no idea what was being said.

After crossing the border we were immediately bombarded by children barely dressed saying "lo" over and over, and holding out their hands. I ignored most of them as they are usually forced into this work by their parents, but I gave one my empty water bottle because I didn't want to carry it anymore and he seemed oddly pleased with that. These kids are good with this game though, most of them aren't skinny or injured, and they seem happy and playful until they see a mark (aka a foreigner).

However that was only the children beggars, there was a few adult ones with missing limbs, torched faces, blind, and hobbling along the streets leaning on the rickshaws to stay up. They did not seem happy, or too enthusiastic about begging.

From here we caught a taxi to the casino that we had meal coupons for. This town is a gambling town, It's like a ghetto(er) Vegas. Apparently many Thais own casinos here just across the border. It was nothing but casino after casino.

Upon entering we had our bags and person scanned and went straight for the food. After that we had a few hours to kill until our bus left so we wandered around the casino. Everything was computerized and casino computers are the last thing I trust so we didn't gamble. Boyd layed down 100 baht at a Baccarat machine and he kept it going for an hour until handing the reins to me. We pretty much killed out time with this machine to the amazement of some Thais around us. Not to mention a smoking hot, obviously rich, Thai woman who was alone. I think this is the first Thai woman I have found attractive enough to comment on.

At about 3pm we took a taxi to the border. By now my stress was pretty much lifted as we had gotten across so getting back would be easy. The taxi driver wanted 1000 baht for the short trip but Boyd told us to get out so we stiffed the scamming bastard and left. We waited in a short line to get re-entry stamps, and when we got there another chat with the police and Boyd ensued. He ended up leaving his passport with the officers and took us out of the building and back a ways.

We forgot to get the Cambodian Visa for re-entry. This sucked. This sucked hardcore. Our bus was due to leave in an hour and we had to wait to get our Visa. At the office we slipped the guy a few undisclosed baht to hurry the process up. At 3:30 we had our Visas and we went back to the main office.

This time the lines were packed, especially with foreign backpackers who were holding up the lines with their problems. Most of them stank like hell too, I'm sure I'm no rose-smelling bastard in the Cambodian heat but some of these guys were wretched.

Another talk ensued with the police and as soon as the words "Muay Thai" were dropped from Boyd everyone was smiles and the stamps were flying. We got out of the office at 3:45 and booked it in our fastest "Thai-style (slow)" walk.

The bus ride back was much the same as before and we arrived back at our home at about 8pm. I wrote this, and I'm very tired. We have another 29 days in the Kingdom.